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erryhristmas
                From the Jones' Family
Well, the Christmas songs and carols are certainly more pertinent to the Northern hemisphere, than to sunny Queensland;  the proverbial Winter Wonderland, sleigh bells,and ol' Jack Frost "nipping at your heels" (...literally!!), make for a splendid fairytale Noel.
Downtown Vernon turned on their Christmas lights in the last week of November, just as the first sprinkling of snow touched the footpaths. By December the surrounding hillsides and many rooftops, were thick with a dusting of dry powder snow. Everyone scurries to clean up their huge leaf piles, before the snow settles for good. The clear, crisp air is occasionally punctuated by wood fires....
ayden and Nathan eagerly dusted off the toboggans, and spend their weekends careering down slippery slopes...they are looking forward to skiing up at SilverStar again and trying out the giant tube rides (again) , they're also keen to try ice-skating, and snow-mobiling.....phew...we have some busy weeks ahead!!

We're going for the traditional Christmas look this year...which means homemade decorations and a trip to the tree farm for the 'real thing'. The neighbours have gone to great artistic lengths to string up lights in their outside trees and windows, the boys' eyes are as wide as saucers when the sun goes down and the lights come on...which is around 4pm!!!

As we look forward to our last two weeks of holidays before the "home stretch", we would like to wish you a wonderful Christmas and look forward to catching up with you in the New Year.....

T’was just before Christmas, and all down our road,
The cars were all sliding where it had just snowed,
The houses in Vernon, all sprinkled with flakes,
Dressed up for the winter, like icing on cakes,

The children all skating, or skiing or sledding,
And layers of clothing, inside they are shedding,
And Mum’s got the chore of drying ‘em out
Warming them up with some cocoa, no doubt,

With Dad in his thermals, ear-muffs and scarf,
Folks back in Oz, are surely to laugh,
There isn’t an inch of his body to view
Except for those lips, that are purply-blue!

The kids off to school in their warm winter gear,
Wont stop nasty bugs, of that have no fear,
They catch every flu’ and bacteria, no fuss,
And bring ‘em all home, to share ‘em with us!

And so at the end of a wintry day,
With our fingers all numb, and the blood run away,
Our lots not so bad, so do not despair,
We’ll just soak in the hot-tub, rum toddies to spare!!

Ah,  feel those bubbles melt all chills away
Are those bells in my head or is that Santa’s sleigh?
The twinkling lights of the yachts on the lake
Are making me drowsy, I can’t stay awake,

Yes, the rum’s working nicely, I can’t feel my hands
I’m dreaming of sunshine and warm, golden sands
A vision of waves lapping up to the shore
And seagulls, and seashells and seaweed and more….

When from inside the house there arose such a clatter
I jumped up from the tub, to see what was the matter
The drops on my eyelids, they instantly froze
My hair, and my shoulders, the tip of my nose
Its subzero out here, with a chill factor too
My legs are all red but the rest of me’s blue

It must be St. Nick, delivering the goods
(Either that, or a cougar come in from the woods!)
Duck down in the water, now what was that dream?
A six foot *barrel through a cloud of steam
If I just close my eyes, I can picture that sight
So Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!

(Apologies to Clement Clarke Moore....)




(*That's "barrel" as in "wave", not "barrel" as in "keg")




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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